Teachers in inclusive schools need a specific attitude or belief, knowledge or understanding, and also competencies to apply their knowledge in a practical setting (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2022). To provide optimal support for children with learning difficulties, it is necessary that teachers are familiar with different concepts of disability (Gebhardt et al., 2022). The social concept of disability shows that, in addition to individual factors, risk factors and protective factors of the social setting play a role in support at school. Only when teachers know the individual-child-related factors, support in school can use the potential in the environment of the person. Following the model of resilience research, inhibiting factors and difficulties are referred to as risk factors and supporting aspects, while strengths and resources are assigned to the protective, supportive factors (Werner, 2020).

Problem-based learning (PBL) has positive effect on knowledge retention and application, changes in attitudes and enhancing future teachers' diagnostic competence (Wedel et al., 2022; Yew & Goh, 2016). Realistic portrayals of learners based on the experiences of experts in special and inclusive education were created and summarized in a casebook (Lutz & Gebhardt, 2021). When working with these cases, students were asked to take a comprehensive look at protective and risk factors in the learner as well as in the influencing environment, since interactions and interconnections occur between the child, the school, and the broader environment (Doblinger & Becker-Stoll, 2020; Lauth et al., 2014).

As an instrument, a text-based case was developed that included individual-child-related factors such as a child's academic performance, social, motivational, emotional, motor, cognitive and language skills. To integrate a social-systemic concept of disability, family and environmental factors were added to the case. By having students work on the case, the following research questions should be answered in the study at the first (A) and second (B) measurement point:

A1. How well do student teachers succeed in identifying protective factors and risk factors of a child with learning difficulties?

(Note: Identify means naming the factors mentioned in the case. This does not imply categorization or assignment.)

A2. What protective factors and risk factors are identified in the child's environment?

A3. What additional individual-child or social-systemic information not mentioned in the case is considered important by the students?

B1. Can more individual-child-related factors be assigned to categories after students have been instructed with PBL?

B2. Do students identify more social-systemic factors after PBL instruction?

B3. Do students ask for additional individual-child or social-systemic information after PBL instruction?

The present study has a pre-post design. At the first measurement point (A) in December 2022, a total of N = 33 special education teacher students in their first semester worked on a digitally presented realistic portrayal of a child with learning difficulties. To assess special education teacher students’ attitudes, we used a gender-unspecific abbreviation in the case (“S.”). The students identified an average of 6.7 of 11 individual-child-related protective factors (M = 6.7; SD = 2.10) and 6.6 of 11 individual-child-related risk factors mentioned in the case (M = 6.6; SD = 1.73), which equals a solution probability of 60.8 % of the individual-child-related protective factors and 59.8 % of the individual-child-related risk factors. In regard to social-systemic factors, students identified an average of 4.1 of 8 protective factors (M = 4.1; SD = 1.45) and 4.4 of 8 risk factors (M = 4.4; SD = 0.90). The solution probability for social-systemic factors was 51.5 % of the protective factors and 53.3 % of the risk factors. On average, the students asked for 3.3 additional information. After students will have worked with the PBL approach for one semester in the seminar, learning gains will be assessed at a second measurement point (B) in June 2023.

The study aims to examine the effects of problem-based learning with realistic cases on special education students' diagnostic competence. The results at the first measurement point (A) indicate that students identify more individual-child-related factors than social-systemic factors. The results are consistent with findings from other studies (e.g., Gebhardt et al., 2022) that have demonstrated that first-year students are likely to have an individual-medical concept of disability. The intervention with the PBL approach aims at increasing the special education students' focus on social-systemic aspects, but also on enabling them to assign individual-child-related factors to categories. This teaching method was chosen because the step-by-step learning activities in which students participate are quite similar to the diagnostic process (Wedel et al., 2019). Potential enhancements to both the instrument and the intervention are subject to discussion (subsequent to measurement point B).

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